A new public art installation in the Cairns CBD featuring traditional Aboriginal shields is an expression of the region's complex and tragic history, mixed with an invitation for all to live in harmony.

Artist and Yidinji elder Paul Bong won a Cairns Regional Council tender to have his concept commissioned — five shield sculptures based on the totemic art he has produced through printmaking.

"We've lived here for 50,000 years and I'm telling that history right through to today's society," Mr Bong said.

"I hope when people see them, they take away that there was a people living here in harmony, that there is a culture here and to have respect for that."

Central Queensland University associate professor and Indigenous rights activist Henrietta Marrie said seeing the work of a Yidinji artist displayed so prominently in Gimuy (Cairns) was inspiring, but long overdue.

She said the shields, coincidentally displayed in Shields Street, told an important story.

"They represent the history of this country, they represent the frontier wars which took place between the Walubarra Yidinji people and the invaders at the time," Ms Marrie said.

"They tell about the massacres. Each of those shields has a story to tell.

"Having these things removed from territory and then taken to museums, then for the white race of Australia to take a monopoly over our people, their culture and what remained of our culture in these museums was a total destruction of our society," she said.

But efforts to repatriate shields and other artefacts to Cairns have stalled due to the lack of a keeping place, which is required by legislation.

"It's really back to square one," Ms Marrie said.

"People are still fighting the same fight I fought back in 1985. The issue of repatriation is still an ongoing fight because we still don't have a cultural centre in Cairns that can house the Yidinji heritage and [that of] the neighbouring tribes.

"We need one here in Cairns that represents our laws, our customs and our society and our tradition. We need that here."